A MOTHER has got it licked when it comes to helping our boys in Afghanistan.

Lesley Mack’s son Ryan May has been in the troubled country since October.

And the 45 year-old is doing something very simple to make the lives of the troops easier. She is sending them ice lollies.

Lesley, of Newcastle, said: “He has been out there since October. He came home for a few weeks in January but he has been out there pretty much all the time.

“He phones home every Sunday if he can and the last time he did I asked him if there was anything he needed which I could send out.

“He said the one thing which would be really handy would be cheap ice lollies which could be posted out and then frozen out there.

“They have gone through the Afghan winter but it is now starting to warm up and Afghan summers can be very hot. When you think about all the equipment they have to carry such as their body armour and weapons it must be really hard for them in the heat.”

Ryan, 22, has been in the Army since he left school five years ago and, although he has served a stint in Iraq, this is his first deployment to the former Taliban-ruled country.

He has seen a number of his friends and comrades killed or seriously injured.

And his mother has revealed how she lives in fear of a dreaded knock on the door.

Lesley said: “Every time the phone rings you wonder whether it might be bad news. I work as a carer and whenever I come home from a night shift and see a strange dark coloured car parked in the street my first thought is that it’s the Army waiting to give me bad news.”

Lesley admits that although like all other relatives of active servicemen she lives in constant fear of the worst happening, she is also proud of the work UK troops are doing to bring stability to the troubled country.

To contribute to one of the MOD approved groups providing support for front line troops in Afghanistan visit: www.mod.uk and search for “Afghanistan Parcels”.